1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an omnidirectional vehicle, moveable to the desired direction without changing the orientation of the body thereof and rotatable at the position at that the vehicle stays.
2. Description of the Related Art
Omnidirectional vehicles are disclosed in the Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. Hei 2-249769 and No. Hei 2-158460. Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. Hei 2-249769 discloses an omnidirectional vehicle that arranges, on the circumference of each wheel, a plurality of free rollers driven to turn in the perpendicular direction to the turning direction of the wheel. Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. Hei 2-158460 discloses an omnidirectional vehicle that arranges, on the circumference of each wheel, a plurality of barrel-shaped free rollers driven to turn at an angle of 45 degrees to the turning direction of the wheel.
These conventional omnidirectional vehicles are too large or too heavy to secure a sufficient ground contact area because of their complicated mechanisms. Therefore, these omnidirectional vehicles can hardly be used for carrying a heavy load. And, since pneumatic tires are hardly used due to their mechanical structures, the vibration etc. generated around the ground contact area of the running vehicle propagates to the body of the vehicle.
Since all the wheels which sustain the conventional omnidirectional vehicle are steerable, the vehicle becomes unstable during high-speed driving.
When the conventional omnidirectional vehicle is driven from a remote controller operated by a driver sitting on the vehicle, the orientation of the remote controller changes as the orientation of the vehicle changes. When the conventional omnidirectional vehicle is remote-controlled from outside, the orientation of the running vehicle, that changes as the vehicle runs, and the fixed orientation of the remote controller deviate from one another. Moreover, if the driver moves during driving while holding the remote controller, the driver will have to drive the vehicle in light of the movements the driver has made up to that point. Otherwise, the vehicle will deviate from the target direction.